Picking up the first win of the 2025 season in thrilling fashion, the Concordia High School football team defended its home field with a 27-26 upset win over rival Beloit.
The Panthers grabbed the momentum early, forcing the Trojans to a three-and-out and a forced punt immediately to open the game. With the Panthers’ first drive of the game starting in Trojan territory, the Panthers got into field goal range, but missed a 32-yard field goal by Parker Jackson.
The Beloit offense would grab the momentum on the following drive with a big run, before the Panther defense held up Beloit, who failed on a fourth-down attempt, and once again the Panther offense started in good field position at midfield. On second down and 20, Drake Blochlinger found Jackson, who outran the Trojans for a 60-yard touchdown to take a 7-0 lead.
The Panthers continued to stall the Trojan offense, and on the following drive, Blochlinger found Ryker Wildeman for a 55-yard reception and stopped at the one-yard line. A penalty pushed the Panthers back, but Blochlinger found Ayden Krier for a 15-yard touchdown to make it 13-0.
Beloit finally got its offense rolling and marched down the field with Joel Rexroat scoring on a 39-yard run to make it a 13-8 game.
The Panther offense stalled out and Beloit took advantage of the short field, punching another touchdown in to take a 14-13 lead. The Panthers marched down the field on the following drive, but Blochlinger threw an interception, and Beloit snagged the momentum. With under a minute to go, Beloit scored again to make it a 20-13 game entering the locker room.
The Panther offense came out with a three-and-out to open the second half, to which Beloit capitalized with a 38-yard touchdown by Rexroat to make it a 26-13 game.
Concordia players would not let the game out of their grasp, marching down the field and after converting on two fourth-down attempts, Blochlinger had his second interception on a batted pass at the 4-yard line.
The defense would lock the Trojans down for only 2 yards and force a punt.
Not letting the defense’s effort go to waste, the Panthers went down the field thanks to a big run by Braytin Hake, with Blochlinger punching the ball in to make it a one-score game, 26-19.
The Trojan offense would not be able to put the pressure on the defense and was forced to punt once again, and with the ball on the Panther 49-yard line with 3:45 to play, the Panthers knew what they had to do.
Facing a fourth and six, head coach Brad Wildeman called a timeout and drew up a play that found Ayden Krier wide open on a slot receiver fade for a touchdown, and in a rollout pass to Shroeder, the Panthers took the 27-26 lead.
With under 2 minutes left, both teams went three and out, and with a last-ditch effort by Beloit on the Panther 45-yard line with four seconds on the clock, Rush LeDuc snagged the interception over a Trojan receiver and secured the victory.
Drake Blochlinger had 280 yards passing with 96 yards on the ground.
Braytin Hake had 96 yards rushing.
Parker Jackson had 98 yards receiving and one touchdown.
Ayden Krier had 76 yards and two touchdowns.
Koehn Williams had 10 tackles.
